Method of making emulsions of compound waxes and the product of said method.



METHOD or MAKING- EMULSIONS or outrun STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGEVWELLINGTON MILES, ot BELMONT, MASSACHUSETTS.

COMPOUND WAXES AND 'rnnrnomicr OF sun METHOD.

,9 Specification of Letters Patent. t t May 3, 1917, No Drawing. I

To all wh omit may concern.-

Be 1t known that I, GEORGE WELLINGTON "MILES, a citizen of the United States, and

.resident of Belmont, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and useful Improvements'in Methods of Making Emulsions of Compound Waxes and the Product of Said I Methods, of which the following is a specification. I

"This invention consists 1n a method of makmg emulsions of compound wax comprising paraffin wax and hard wax and in the product of the method.

As stated in my United States Patent No.

1,168,534, dated January 18, 1916, paraffin shellac wax, Japan wax, are employed, but their high price opposes a strict limitation.

on the1remployment.

I have discovered that by melting a relaq and this characteristic persists in the wax I tively small proportion of such a hard wax affin wax, a wax compound with a relatively large proportion of paris produced which has a melting point close to the relatively high melting point of the hard wax ingredient. I The possession of the high melting point renders the compound wax nearly if not quite as effective for paperfinishing purposes as the hard wax ingredient itself.

The parafi'ln wax in such wax-mixtures does not emulsify in soapv solution of the usual degree-of dilution. With any ordinary soap there is a critical water proporemulsificati'on of tion, much less than that employed for the other waxes, which de termines the emulsification of paraffin wax Such critical water-proportion has to be determined empirically forany given soap.

My method of emulsifying a wax-mixture containing. parafiin wax and one or more of the waxes-above mentioned, or other hard wax, consists generally in making a soap solution w th water in excess of the critical proportion required. for the emulsification of the paraifin wax-in the mixture; thenthan that'of paraffin wax alone,

Application filed July 21, 1915. Serial No. 41,176.

' mixing the soap solution or paste with the wax-mixture and evaporating the excess water. by heat,- and beating the mixture.

Until the critical water proportion is reached, the paraflin wax in the mixture will notemulsify; but after the requisite reductlon of the water, the entire compound wax goes into emulslon.

As a'specific example of the method,take a wax-mixture containing, say 75% of paraffin wax and 25% of carnauba wax, or Montan wax, or other hard wax, or more than one kindof other wax. Make a tallow chip soap amounting to 10% by weight. of

the wax-mixture, a paste or solution,-using four or five times its weight of water. Then melt'the'wax-Inixture and stir in the soap.

paste; heat, approximately to the boiling point of water, and continue the heat, stlrring or beating, until, by evaporation,

the water is reduced to the critical propor-.

tion. Thereupon, the entire compound wax emulsifies. I

The emulsion thus produced does not behave as a mixture of two distinct waxes, but as an emulsion of a compound; wax. The melting point of the wax mixture is uite close .to that of carnauba wax alone in emulsion. Consequently, the application of heat (as in paper coating and finishing) does not melt one part of the compound more quickly than another; the relatively high. melting point,

tained, and when attained, the emulsified compound wax melts and produces the desired finish.

considerably higher must be atr l If the ratio of soda soap to wax, is varied,

the critical water proportion will also vary to some extent. The exact limit of this critical proportion cannot bedetermined, but Whatever the soap used the critical proportion of water will be such that if mixed with the soap alone, it will. form a thick viscous paste. a

After forming the thick emulsion as above described it may be advantageously extended by the addition of more water.

. The mixture of'paraffin and other waxes might contain also other ingredients without departing from the invention. It will be understood. also that the proportions of paraflin and othenwaxes might be varied considerably from the proportions above suggested, and that the invention is applicable to Wax mixtures containing any substantial amount of paraffin wax down to 20% or even 10% of the whole mixture.

The invention in its broader aspects is applicable generally to emulsifying waxmixtures containing a substantial amount of parafiin wax, whether the other ingredients be other Waxes or fat acids, and such broad application of the invention is contemplated by certain of the claims.

I claim:

1. The method of making emulsions of compound waxes comprising paraflin wax and a relatively hard and high melting Wax, which consists in melting the ingredient waxes together to form the compound wax, and then heating the Wax mixture with soap and a quantity of water appropriate to the emulsification of the paraflin wax with the soap employed.

2. An emulsion in water and soap of a and a hard Wax.

3. The method of making emulsions of compound waxes" comprising paraffin and a relatively hard and high melting Wax, which consists in "melting'a 'preponderant proportion of paraffin wax With'a hard wax to form the compound wax and then heat ing the wax mixture with soap and a quantity of water appropriate to the emulsification of the parafiin wax with the soap employed.

4:. An emulsion in water and soap of a compound wax comprising a preponderant proportion of paraflin Wax and a hard wax in subordinate proportion.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts, this'15th day 'of July, 1915.

GEORGE WELLINGTON MILES.

compound Wax comprising parafiin Wax WVitnesses:

ROBERT CUSHMAN, CHARLES D. WooDBERRY. 

